Beno
Beno (formerly benobve), commonly known as BENO '''or simply Ben', is a lift filmer as well as unauthorized lift surfer from Medway, Gillingham United Kingdom. He is the original founder of "lift tour" videos (usually labelled as "custom textIt can be a locationhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjNfBhYGnmw or a conclusion about where the building he was filmedhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ69yAs6-vo. | IT'S LIFT TOUR TIME!")His older elevator tour video was titled as "Tour of the lifts at (location)"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7xi7G8rDhw. He is also the creator of Beno Building Creator which is an online building creator that creates building files to (a 3D building simulator). History Ben has been interested in lifts since he was threeDo you even lift? The up and down world of YouTube elevator obsessives. On February 23, 2009, he started his YouTube channel "benobve"1000th VIDEO SPECIAL!!! and started uploading lift videos after watching videos from mrmattandmrchay, Harrihealey02, Lee Thomas, and JackOtis (now closed). He also uploads trains, lifts, and bus videos, and the reason why he uploaded all of these videos is because he enjoyed doing it. He wanted to document lifts that there was absolutely nothing about on the internet, as well as seeing if the interests in lifts in the UK would grow from just a few people into lots of people. Most of all he wanted to film the least known lifts (as well as the ordinary ones which are fun to ride) and he enjoyed doing so. In November 2015, Ben decided to drop the "'bve'" from his channel name, shortening it to just "'Beno'" (the "'B'" was also capitalized). For the last couple of years, Beno has taken up lift surfing. See below for more. Lift Surfing & Keys In recent years, Beno has taken up "lift surfing", using his keys to ride on top of elevators in random buildings, entirely without authorization. The more secure the building is the more reason to go on top of lifts. As well as this, he also likes to use his collection of keys to put lifts into special service modes, use fire mode and access lifts that need a key to access. Beno does this in his "Detailed look at _________" videos, his "Lift adventure" and "Random lift adventure" videos. Beno's activities surrounding key usage and surfing has been met with some controversy, mostly surrounding the fact that he has been taking children lift surfing (under 18). Many have also been upset at the fact Beno has been messing around with lift controllers and equipment. While nothing has gone wrong so far (and he has put everything back the way it was before), many people have stated that there is too much risk involved in messing with controllers when untrained in their function. The controversy has led to some falling out between Beno and other lift enthusiasts, and there have been some very nasty comments made on both sides of the argument. Lift Industry Charity (LIC) Campaign against Beno Elevation Magazine is a magazine for Lift companies in the UK (mainly Generic/3rd Party companies). In the latest issue (89th issue) is two articles written by the magazine's publisher, Ish Buckingham, campaigning against Beno's YouTube Channel. The Magazine cost £15 (UK) to read, and YouTube user Johnathan King was able to read the two articles (and we are very thankful to him for doing so). Random Lift Tours Sometime in 2012, Beno launched a new style of his lift tour named "'Random Lift Tour". It is a lift tour mixed with random stuff that is usually not related to lifts. It is also often includes short comedic scenes, fake advertising, and even burping and farting noises. '''In the United Kingdom * Tower Bridge * King's College Hospital * Manchester * Christmas Special (2013) * University of Kent * Christmas in London (2014) * Across Europe with Low Cost Airlines * Cycling and camping adventure in France, Belgium and Netherlands (2015) * Cologne, Germany (2016) * Frankfurt, Germany (2016) Epic Lift Tour This is the name that Beno gives to his ultra long and awesome lift tours. These lift tours often focus on other things (but not random things) such as buses, trains and other interesting things that relate to the place that Beno is visiting (in other words these videos are not made to be comedic like the Random Lift Tours are). So far 4 of these videos have been made: "The Olympic Park", "The Olympic Legacy", "Heathrow Airport" and "Gatwick Airport". * Olympic Park * Olympic Legacy * Heathrow Airport * Gatwick Airport Parodies in the channel Stuffed Animal Characters Beno uses a selection of stuffed toy animals, which represent owners of Generic lift companies that he has invented. The most popular of these is Evil Owl, who made his debut in the random lift tour series, and has been a fixture of Beno's channel since. Evil Owl is the owner of "The Evans Lift Alliance" (parody of the real generic company "Express Lift alliance"), and has a passion for replacing old lifts with his bad quality generics. The second most popular character is High-Rise Hamster, who owns the rival company "High Rise Lift Services". Advent Calender (2015) Beno decided to do a 25-episode advent calendar in 2015, later re-titled as the title start with "Eastfields" (parody of Westfields), in which he visits several Westfields shopping centres, as well as various other malls and town centres (Westfields is the main focus though). This series also includes riding on buses and trains, as well as cameos by Evil Owl and High-Rise Hamster. "Improve" the lift safety story Beno uses a story from the "Lift and Escalator Industry Association" (LEIA) in the United Kingdom called "Liam Loves Lifts!" to create his own version and make the parody of the story, which include a "lift surfing" scene in the storyAn inportant story about lift safetyLiam Loves Lifts. This also claimed that the original story was not very interesting. In November, 2016, LEIA sent copyright claims to pull the parody down from YouTube. Beno won the claim and the video was restored in December, 2016Elevation magazine campaigning to remove my videos. He is currently discussing with legal advisors on whether or not he can re-claim the lost revenue from monetization. Trivia *Other than being an lift enthusiast, he is also a bus and railway enthusiasts. He also loves urban exploring, cycling, lamp posts, substations, grotty places and forts. *So far, his longest single lift tour video is "Frankfurt Random lift tour" with 32 minutes and 15 seconds duration.Frankfurt Random lift tour *His longest lift tour in total is his 2015 Advent Calendar, which sees him go to many different Westfield shopping centers in the the UK. The tours is over 2 hours long, but is split up into 25 episodes (as it is an advent Calendar). *He has been filming lifts with Top Level, PostTower, BefaceComputing, Hate Generics, DEWHURST IS SO AMAZING!, Aaron AB Hazza2002 ltbcvids since 2015. *He hates lifts that has been modernized or installed by RANDOM LIFT TOUR - Christmas Special or with Wimbledon Shopping Center | IT'S LIFT TOUR TIME!, claiming that they are very boring and crappyRANDOM LIFT TOUR - Manchester. *His favorite lifts are: ** ** **Evans Lifts ** Aldous and Campbell ** ** SchindlerSmart MRL and SchindlerMobile (Direct Drive) **Platt-Schindler (Schindler R-Series or 60s pop in logic buttons) **Kone Ecodisc ** (only fast/traction ones) **Otis lifts built before 1990s **Mitsubishi ** ThyssenKrupp TWIN **Orona (only if it's running good) Gallery Opening title cards BENO old title card.jpg|Old opening title cards used on some older videos before 2012. BENO new open card.jpg|Newer opening title card. Beno Lift Tour title card.jpg|Newer LIFT TOURS opening title card. Beno Lift Tours Random title card.jpg|Random LIFT TOURS opening title card. Closing title cards BENO old title card end2.jpg|Old closing title card when his website was still using the old domain name. BENO old title card end1.jpg|Old closing title card with his current website domain name. BENO new closing card.jpg|Newer closing title card with his current website domain name. Beno title card.jpg|Newer LIFT TOURS closing title card. Lift Tours maps BENO old map1.jpg|Old Lift Tours map with white background, red squares (which indicates lifts), and grey lines. This is a map of Canary Wharf in London. BENO new map1.jpg|Newer Lift Tours map with black background. This is the map of Heathrow Airport. The red lines indicates that they are railway lines. Manchester Lift Tour map.jpg|Another newer LIFT TOURS map with black background, light blue squares (which indicates lifts), and puple glowish lines. This is a map of a shopping centre in Manchester, England. See also *Beno.org.uk External links *YouTube channel *Official website Category:Elevator filmers from the United Kingdom Category:Elevator filmers who joined on the Skyscraper Simulator Forum Category:Elevator-related website founder